IF the scale for craic ranges from 0 to 90, whatever tool is utilised to measure such jocularity would be registering in the high 80s around Youghal this week.

Davy Russell is never backwards when there is some slagging to be meted out. He hails from and recently returned to live on the right side, as he would have it, of Youghal Bridge, which straddles the Blackwater and acts as the tangible border between East Cork and West Waterford.

In so many ways, the districts are one, not least for the point-to-point circuit that honed the future champion jockey and where relationships began that have sustained Russell long after he moved successfully into the paid ranks as a Gold Cup winner, habitual Cheltenham Festival winner and rider of more than 1,200 winners in the pro game.

Youghal is an epicentre for many of the surrounding communities when it comes to education, shopping, social activities and business. But when Cork and Waterford cross swords in the hurling championship, as they have so memorably on countless occasions since the turn of the century, there is a bit more bite to exchanges.

Waterford have held the upper hand in recent years but Cork pulled off a surprise win in June on the way to bagging the Munster title the following month. The Déise boys have regrouped through the back door and so they meet once more, in an All-Ireland semi-final tomorrow, with no safety net.

CLAIMING TERRITORY

The ribbing is intensifying and reached new levels of imagination early last Monday morning when an unspecified number of intrepid voyagers ventured into Rebel territory by the bridge to paint ‘Up Waterford’ in blue on a replica of Moby Dick, built in 2013 to commemorate the filming of the Gregory Peck-featured movie in Youghal in 1954.

“Isn’t that what the GAA is about?” enthuses Russell.

In the past, Youghal has produced the likes of Willie Walsh and Seanie O’Leary for Cork All-Ireland winning sides. Bill Cooper represents the seaside town in the current unit.

“Bill’s home place is only over the wall from me at home. I was very good friends with his cousin Tony growing up. You feel part of it when a clubman is involved. When I was a young lad, there weren’t that many from East Cork on the county team but in the last couple of years we’ve been blessed with the Cloyne boys, the Midleton lads, the Killeagh lads and now the Youghal lads again. St Ita’s never had a lad on the county team (until Seamus Harnedy).

“And then on the other side of the bridge you’ve all the Clashmore boys (Tadhg de Búrca, Brian O’Halloran) and the Ardmore lads (Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh and, prior to that, the Prendergast brothers). I know it’s a different county but I think Brian O’Halloran went to school in Youghal. It’s a close-knit thing.”

HURLING FOR CANCER

He will keep up to date with the unfolding action at Croke Park from Downpatrick but will be togging out himself two days later for the Hurling For Cancer annual charity match in Newbridge, where his selection takes on a team representing Jim Bolger.

The duo have spearheaded a remarkable event, though Russell insists that Bolger and his staff are responsible for most of the organisation. More than €500,000 has been raised in five years, an All-Star list from the GAA and racing worlds giving their time freely.

Local pub Neeson’s put up the post-game food at no charge and Bill Hayes of Gaelic Armour is supplying the jerseys. So every penny is going towards cancer research.

“I thought we’d raise a few bob and have a bit of craic. That first year, when we got the final tally in, it was more than €100,000. It was phenomenal and it has gotten bigger and better since. The people in Newbridge have been very good to us and the media have gotten a hold of it too.

“Mostly though, it’s the lads playing it are enjoying it. The jockeys like to meet the county players, present and past, and the county players like to meet people from the racing industry.”

“The biggest thrill I got was to watch Lee Chin last year. And DJ Carey scored a goal and I promise you, if it was in any game in the country it would have gone down as good a goal as was ever scored. It was spectacular. And Joe Deane showed the class and style he always had. I know from playing Killeagh, he’s so dangerous.”

HIGH DEMAND

Much as he adores hurling, it was always second-best to riding. At 38, Russell is riding as well as he ever has done, as happy as he was in the early days when he was his own boss and it was all about the horse, the people and the enjoyment.

The only difference is that he is in more demand.

He rode his 36th winner in Sligo on Wednesday, having journeyed from Cullentra House after a morning riding work. Indeed he had stayed with Gordon Elliott the night before, after a fruitless trip to Doncaster Sales. At that point, he was 12 winners clear of Ruby Walsh and, while that means nothing at this stage of the season, he is the in-form pilot.

As shown in Galway, when he won the Plate for the first time, in the colours of his former employers Gigginstown on the Henry de Bromhead-trained Balko Des Flos, Russell remains the man for the big occasion, as well as any occasion. Nothing is perfect though.

“The season is going well so far. Galway could have been a bit better to be honest. The Plate makes it shine a bit brighter. I was a bit disappointed with one or two rides I gave horses there but that’s the beauty of being a jockey. You can go and get up on the next fella.”

That requires a particular frame of mind.

“You have about 15 minutes to change your f******g attitude.”

Recalling my own 20s, I presume it takes time to develop that ability.

“Jump jockeys don’t come into their own until their late 20s, early 30s, whereas in other sports you’re coming to the end of your tether at that stage. A jump jockey is coming into his prime and you gather a lot of experience in them years. Then you have that short window to make that experience count. You spend your 20s learning and your 30s are when you hopefully get the benefit of all that.”

LEARNING THE BASICS

In a recent stellar slot on RTÉ Radio 1’s Saturday Sport, Russell made similar point when discussing an increasing emphasis on fitness and conditioning. Ruby Walsh and Barry Geraghty are two of his own generation who have taken on conditioning regimes in recent years, though both reckon they would have had nothing to do with it in their 20s.

Fitness is obviously important but Russell believes that the younger jockeys should be focussing on developing fundamentals in these formative years.

“I don’t know do they realise that we worked full days in yards. You started in the morning, worked all through the evening. You piked bales of hay, you drove tractors. They’re the years you’re learning about being a horseman, about different sides of racing. Nowadays, they don’t have to do that.

“I had a square bale with a saddle on it and every evening I used to ride finishes on it, work on things, ever before I became a jockey. I did work extremely hard on it. Lads now are maybe taking all those things for granted a small bit, the basics, and going more into the fitness.

“I try to keep myself very fit and I have to because of my age but the young lads, who are naturally fit, should be maybe concentrating a little bit more on getting the basics right.”

As he said in that radio piece, if you haven’t sat on one before and it ran away on you going down to the start, you had two minutes to work him out. The same with regards to formulating a Plan B or thinking outside the box because everyone wants a good handy position just off the lead.

“Regardless of how fit you are, you need to learn them things. Lads are in an awful rush now. I didn’t ride my first winner ‘til I was 19 and I didn’t turn professional until I was 23. There’s lads that are 18 or 19 wondering now why they aren’t riding in Grade 1s.”

He returns to hurling to illustrate his point further. Neither of the teams playing at GAA HQ tomorrow will have the 15 most skilful hurlers in the counties.

“The world is gone too much into rules and regulations, that you start work at a certain time and finish at a certain time. That’s a load of b******s if you want to break through. I don’t mean you have to do it every day of the week and become a busy fool but you can’t expect to go through life and work just the hours the regulations tell you and become really good at something. You have to step outside that comfort zone.”

GO THE EXTRA MILE

He hates that he might come across as the old fella going on about his day. He has always been drawn to people who worked hard and sees it as a common trait in high achievers.

“I stayed in Portumna one or two nights the other week. My daughter Jaimee, who’s 13, said she’d babysit Lily and Finn, so myself and (wife) Edelle said we’d go down to Portumna pitch for a puckaround.

“We were pucking away and there was this young lad down at the bottom and to see what he was doing at nine o’clock at night! He was doing drills, driving balls against the wall, doing sprints, taking 65s, driving the ball back out and back again.

“I went down to talk to him. He was eight hours too old for minor and there’s no U21 next year so he felt he had to work extra hard to become a senior. And I was saying to myself ‘Fair play to you boy.’ There was no other person there. He was there on his own. He was just going that extra mile.”

FARM DEVELOPMENT

He has been developing the farm at home for a number of years now and had some excellent success with the bloodstock he has nurtured.

Countrywide Flame won a Triumph Hurdle and Fighting Fifth and Atouchbetweenacarra a Grade 2 handicap chase winner around Cheltenham, while Themoonandsixpence won between the flags, a bumper, over hurdles and over fences.

Of the more recent graduates, the Elliott-trained Dinons finished second in the Tattersalls Sales Bumper at Fairyhouse on Easter Monday on his sole run to date and looks a horse with a future. He and his father Jerry have a few mares from which they have started breeding but that is a long-term game and he doesn’t know what they have produced yet.

“It’s a tough business. You have to get one nearly every year. The amount of work that goes into them is unreal.”

He relishes it though.

“If one was born with a little toe out or a toe in, if you get on top of these things early enough, they’re all manageable. Seeing a horse mature into an animal is always nice. It’s the same I suppose as watching youngsters grow up into athletes. I’m just trying to nurture them on into what you might call a racehorse and it’s very satisfying to see them do it. And obviously it pays well if you’re able to produce nice horses.”

He is dabbling in cattle farming too, learning along the way thanks to the help of some neighbours and trying to recall some of what he might have picked up in Ag College.

Bloodstock and livestock work well together but he is not sure that he wants to rely on them to raise a family whenever he stops riding, though that won’t be anytime soon.

“I’ll keep doing it as long as I’m enjoying it, riding winners and keeping people happy. I have huge hunger still. I don’t want to finish on anybody else’s terms. I’ll finish on my own.”

Whatever path he takes, it will involve racing though. Physically going to the track. Perhaps there is a hint in that.

YOUNG ADMIRATION

It turns out that American basketballer Larry Bird was someone he admired growing up.

“Jesus I used to love him. Awww man! First of all, he stood out as a white man in a sport in which all the best players were black. He played for the Celtics and they had the shamrock and the little Leprechaun with a pipe in his mouth.

“He had the best fade in the game. He could send a fella wrong three times in the one play. I remember him scoring baskets from behind the basket. He was an unbelievable man for the three-pointer too.

“We had a basketball court in Youghal and we used to play a bit. I was never heading out with my Nike runners and long sleeveless shirt or anything like that but I used try to think the way he would think when I was playing hurling or football, to do the fades and tricks he would do with the ball.

“And he was an awful man to get up off the ground. He could get hopped off the ground and get up again. He would always finish a game. He was tough as nails now. You’d think he was half-Irish anyway!”

It’s the same reason Roy Keane was a hero. Being from Cork helped but it was about the utter dedication, selflessness, willingness to hurt for the cause.

“He was a bit like Marmite, you either love him or hate him. I love Roy Keane. I love him. I’m obviously attracted to that type of person. Fully committed to something. I just can’t get my head around the lads that stroll back the field, or stroll here, or stroll there. It’s not attractive to me.”

CATCHING A BREAK

Like that teenager in Portumna, going the extra mile. Russell has travelled plenty by this stage but the fires still burn brightly. Despite all he has achieved, he has never forgotten his roots and gets an added buzz from riding winners for people or families from the neighbourhood that supported him from the beginning, be it Ken Budds, Roger McGrath, Liam Burke, John Kiely and so on.

“I wouldn’t be heard of in the game only for the likes of them. Paul Lenihan, on the far side of Dungarvan, could have given anybody the chance to ride the horses. He let me ride the likes of a filly called Janiste. She was no great shakes but to me she was a superstar.

“Garrett Ducey, God rest him, was from Ardmore. He gave me the opportunity to ride Donna’s Princess. She’s the dam of a couple of good horses (City Slicker, Carrigmartin and Hannah’s Princess have won 14 races between them). She was owned by Denis Broderick, who has the hardware store in town. I won a few races on her too. Again, she was no superstar but a superstar to me.

“Fiona O’Connor gave me my first winner on the track (Right ‘N’Royal at Gowran Park on May 20, 1999). Pat O’Connor in Ballyduff gave me my first winner in a point-to-point (Spanish Castle in Tallow the same year) and then gave me rides on the track.

“They could have went away and got Philip Fenton if they wanted to. But they didn’t. There’s no point in saying Davy Russell would have won a Gold Cup unless the likes of them started you off.

“Dad had one horse at home so I’d nothing to fall back on. I don’t know why it was but it was quite a few Waterford people, the likes of John Kiely, John Queally, Fiona O’Connor and Paul Lenihan… in my first couple of years I rode a lot of winners for them.

People use you an awful lot when you’re claiming five and claiming three but when I wasn’t claiming at all they were still using me.”

The generosities of Waterford folk will mean nothing to him on Sunday though.

Always the competitor.

Throw-in for the Hurling For Cancer match is on Tuesday 15th August at 6.30pm in St. Conleth’s Park, Newbridge, Kildare and tickets, costing €10 for adults and €15 for families, are currently on sale at cancer.ie/catalog/tickets or on CallSave 1850-606060. Tickets will also be on sale at the gate, on the night of the match. All money raised will go to the Irish Cancer Society to fund researchers improving the lives of people across the country affected by cancer.